Ministers are encouraging NHS hospitals to set up services overseas to generate additional income.
The joint Department of Health and UK Trade and Investment scheme is being dubbed Healthcare UK. Central support would be offered to hospitals with the capacity and desire to expand abroad. All NHS hospitals would be eligible.
Some hospitals have already developed overseas services. Moorfields Eye Hospital in London has set up a clinic in Dubai where staff share their knowledge and skills with the aim of improving ophthalmology services in the Middle East.
The department said it made ‘absolute sense’ for the NHS to be able to trade on its valuable assets and world-class reputation for excellence. But it also gave assurances that the needs of NHS patients would continue to be the health service’s priority.
Health minister Anne Milton said the move represented ‘good news’ for patients, who would benefit from the extra income their hospital would generate.
‘This is also good news for the economy, which will benefit from the extra jobs and revenue created by our highly successful life sciences as they trade more across the globe,’ she said.
‘The NHS has a world-class reputation and this exciting development will make the most of that to deliver real benefits for both patients and taxpayers.’
Responding to the proposal, Tim Smart, a member of the Foundation Trust Network and chief executive of London’s King’s College Hospital, said there was potential to secure benefits to patients both at home and overseas.
But he warned that safeguards were needed. ‘Foundation trusts and other health organisations need to be completely transparent about how any profits arise, and how they are channelled back into the NHS.
‘They will have to structure commercial activities so there is no risk to NHS services or possibility of any liabilities falling on taxpayer-funded activities,’ Smart said.
